Welcome to Cambodia

The funny thing about soundproof headphones is that you can hear your thoughts louder than normal. And as I stood there looking at an AK-47, a Tommy Gun and a Rocket Launcher, I certainly had a lot to think about.

Just a couple hours prior I had taken my first step in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After 24 hours of flying, my eyes tried their best to take everything in. Naked men meditating in half built apartments, entire families living outside crowding around their television without a roof over their head and little children waving to me with a smile on their face. The air reeked of the trash that is scattered everywhere in the city. The Tuk Tuks, motorcycles, and Lexus SUVs are fighting for spots on the road. Everyone is driving the wrong way but they provide a very kind beep of the horn to let people know when they are passing them.

I am hot and sweaty. I am exhausted from the flight and overwhelmed by my surroundings. We have been riding on this Tuk Tuk for a good 30 minutes with a Khmer (Cambodian person) that I just met. His English is poor and he doesn’t even try to explain what we are doing. He finally pulls up to a building that is tucked away in an alley. He invites all of us (six Americans who just met each other) to come take a seat. He passes around menus with a smile. Finally, I think to myself, some food!

I glance at the front page of the menu, “Take no pictures” it states. Okay, no problem. I open it up to see an AK-47 and a price tag of $100. “Our most popular selection”, says another Khmer who seemed to appear out of nowhere. I scan the rest of the pages. Shotguns, grenades and even a rocket launcher for $400 that buys you one shot at “the mountain outside” as the menu states.

“You”, the Khmer man says, pointing to myself, “What are you gonna shoot?”

I politely decline, explaining that I did not bring enough cash. He does not seem happy. I made the guy who owns every gun imaginable unhappy. Great start Kev, making friends already.

A few people in our group cough up the cash to shoot an AK-47 and a Tommy Gun. Thank goodness. Maybe I will survive this ordeal after all.

So here I am, standing with my soundproof headphones on. In a dark alleyway with four strange Khmers and four Americans I just met. Guns line up the brick wall. Shells cover the ground. I check my back every three seconds and stand by the door just in case I have to make a run for it. I can’t decide if it is a good thing or a bad thing that my mom has no idea what I am doing at this moment.

Shells start flying from the guns. The Tommy Gun malfunctions and nearly blasts an American girl in the face. She is instantly uncomfortable and declines to shoot anymore. We use this as an opportunity to get the hell out of this place.

Before we leave our Khmer driver throws everyone a beer. He lifts one in the air and says,“choill moai’ ”. We assume this means cheers and we all take a sip.

Back on the Tuk Tuk, we are again flying blind. We have no idea what awaits us and our Khmer driver speaks no English. This time we are riding through beautiful fields with palm trees scattering across the land. It was like Nebraska had met California.

At this point I am feeling pretty good. We survived the shooting range so everything else from here on out should be a breeze. That is when our Tuk Tuk started to sputter. Slowly and surely our speed decreased. Until we were stopped, in the middle of Nowhere, Cambodia.

“Out of gas?” I ask our Khmer driver. He provides no audible response. Instead he gets out and starts pushing. We jump out and start helping. Eventually we find ourselves in front of a small shack. Our driver asks for two bottles of Coke. Except it looks like watered down Coke, light brown and yellow. Our driver takes the Coke bottles and a funnel and starts pouring it in the tank. He starts the engine and off we go.

We arrive at our next stop unsure of what awaits us. We walk into garden area and pay six dollars and are handed some headphones and an electronic device. The voice on the audio guide directs us around a Cambodian killing field. We listen as we are guided through a genocide that occurred 40 some years ago. Here is where Cambodian people were enslaving their own fellow Cambodians and killing them with poison and hammers and other horrible devices. They were picking on people who were more intelligent and enlightened than them. We saw a grave site marked by thousands of bracelets that tourists leave behind as a sign of respect. We stood by a tree called The Magic Tree while the audio device played a chilling propaganda song that the slaves were forced to listen to. We were required to slip off our shoes and meditate or pray for 5 seconds before we entered a temple that housed 17 floors of bones. There were 8000 skulls lined up, some with holes in the eye socket or the cranium from hammers that ended their lives.

We then learned about the men who did these horrible acts. Most of these men are still on trial for what they did. And many of them died before they were ever prosecuted. It was chilling to learn about something so horrible that happened so recently. And yet I found it fascinating how the Cambodia people have embraced their ugly past and displayed it in order to pay respect to those who suffered.

After a day of flying, shooting guns and learning about genocide we were all pretty exhausted, shocked and emotional. We found a small, nice looking restaurant to eat dinner called The Bird’s Nest. Bird nests literally hung from the ceiling, a three legged dog hobbled around the restaurant looking for scraps and two naked boys were running around across the street. At this point nothing surprised us. We ordered some cheap beers, raised our cans and said, “choill moai’ ”.

-Kevin

http://vimeo.com/m/108705935